Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

English language training at British council

Staff reporter

"Language learning happens best in life-like situations"

RESOURCE SHARING: ELT trainer Alison Barrett interacts with participants at British Council workshop in Chennai. — Photo: Shaju John

Chennai: Teachers, with no less than 15 years of tutoring experience behind them, sit quietly in a class intent on an exercise their guide has set them.

Their task is to observe a video clip featuring a teacher giving an English lesson to her students. After about 15 minutes, their guide — a language trainer with the British Council — has a few questions for them: What techniques did the teacher in the video use? Was it one-way teaching or more of an interaction? The language trainer, Alison Barrett, is pleased with the results of the exercise. Not only did the teachers pick up tips from the video, but they also learnt a novel exercise that they could adapt for their own students.

Language learning happens best in life-like situations, says Ms. Barrett, a Delhi-based British Council trainer, who was in Chennai for the workshop. Such simulated environments can be created within the classroom, where students (with English as a second language) are expected to converse with themselves and the teacher in English.

She also urges teachers to consider themselves as `co-ordinators' who create interactive situations for students. Ms. Barrett has another piece of advice for students: Don't be afraid to speak in English, thinking your accent is not bad. You learn only by making mistakes.

The British council workshop was part of a countrywide training programme in several cities for veteran teachers, who would be trainers for the Cambridge English proficiency exams in India. Candidates from Kerala, Hyderabad, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu participated in the Chennai workshop.

For details on English language training, log on to www.britishcouncil.org or call 044-42050600.

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